[Peace-discuss] FW: Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Alienates Americans, Smacks of Elitism

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

I personally think you are being way too optimistic.  I am not sure if
two-way communications screened by the likes of his transition team and
recent appointees is any better than no communications at all.  Yes it is a
subtle feel good symbolic gesture that may make people think that they are
really having effective input while actually not having a seat at the table.
If we get universal health care, it will not be because ordinary people
(progressives, leftists, or anyone else) petitioned for it; it will be
because the corporate establishment wants it as a way to cut their costs for
benefits and shift them onto the public.  Their pressure will be the one
that carries the day.  The same will be the case for "green" issues, the
wars, and the economy.  As the saying goes, "talk is cheap" and "listening
cost you nothing either."  However, taking action does have costs associated
with it; so implementing policies on behalf of the people versus the
corporations will cost more politically than implementing policies that
either the corporations want or both they and the people want.  I think
given this calculation you know who will be seriously listened to and their
suggestions entertained as courses of action.

-----Original Message-----
From: webmaster at one-world.org [mailto:webmaster at one-world.org] 
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 2:41 AM
To: jencart13 at yahoo.com
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; sf-core at yahoogroups.com; LAURIE
SOLOMON
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] FW: Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Alienates
Americans, Smacks of Elitism

It is somehow comforting to hear complete sentences from any political  
figure, much less the president-elect!  Wow! We educated folk get to  
feel like we're being represented....

  Still, we shouldn't be complacent.  A schooled fellow in office  
doesn't mean we'll see the transformations we want.  If you want any  
hope of your policy ideas being reflected in Obama's policies, you'll  
have to start now.  This time of "transition" is the time to start  
hammering the new president with suggestions.  The aggregate result of  
individuals, responding through the Obama internet behemoth, might  
actually have some impact, even if it is only "social movement  
ammunition" for him to use while he pushes certain agenda.

  I'll put it this way:  if you want a single-payer national health  
plan, now is the time to be clamoring.  If you want an end to war, now  
is the time to demand it.  If you want to see a new "New Deal," with a  
"Green Progress Adminstration," then you should start asking for it  
now.  The transition period for Obama is unlike any other in history,  
because he has set up a 2-way information infrastructure with his  
base.  We should take advantage of this situation.






----- Message from jencart13 at yahoo.com ---------
     Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:40:42 -0800 (PST)
     From: Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: jencart13 at yahoo.com
  Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] FW: Obama's Use of Complete Sentences  
Alienates Americans, Smacks of Elitism
       To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net, sf-core at yahoogroups.com,  
LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at ADVANCENET.NET>


> This is terrific! Overlooking of course that we all heard Obama say   
> (cringe)  "Prez Bush has kindly extended an invitation for Michelle   
> and I to visit the White House".
>  --Jenifer
>
> --- On Sat, 11/22/08, LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at ADVANCENET.NET> wrote:
>
> From: LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at ADVANCENET.NET>
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: Obama's Use of Complete Sentences   
> Alienates Americans, Smacks of Elitism
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net, sf-core at yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 5:30 PM
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> Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Alienates Americans, Smacks of Elitism
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> In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack   
> Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight   
> years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political  
>  observers say.
> Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60  
>  Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal  
>  tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences  
>  virtually every time he opened his mouth.
> But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public   
> pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last   
> eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.
> According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University   
> of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a   
> president who speaks English as if it were his first language.
> "Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in   
> agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the   
> risk of sounding like an elitist."
> The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete   
> sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay,  
>  subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing  
> off."
> The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete   
> sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest   
> critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
> "Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way  
>  that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder   
> can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into  
>  what Americans are needing also," she said.
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> Andy Borowitz is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The New  
>  Yorker and The New York Times, and at his award-winning humor site,  
>  BorowitzReport.com.
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>  _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
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----- End message from jencart13 at yahoo.com -----